It's almost impossible to watch the final episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures without feeling overcome with sadness. Knowing that Elisabeth Sladen died soon after filming these episodes, and they're the last we'll ever see of her.

So it's a good thing that we're seeing her at her best: full of compassion and moral outrage and resourcefulness, outwitting two opposing armies and standing up for the rights of a child to be her own person instead of the weapon her "mother" designed her to be. Sarah Jane projects a wonderful sense of optimism as well as humanism in "Sky," refusing to stop fighting for the alien child Sky to be free of her alien-imposed destiny.

It's weird that Sarah Jane's been living on Bannerman Road for years, and it's taken the show this long to do a version of "Delta and the Bannermen," the Doctor Who episode about an alien queen on the run from a group of intergalactic thugs with her baby. At least there was no rockabilly and awkward slow-dancing this time around.

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Sad to say "Sky" was not the Sarah Jane Adventures at their finest, despite Sladen giving it her all, and a few good scenes about the dilemma of what to do with a child who was designed as a doomsday weapon. Sky's "mother," Miss Myers, is kind of a cartoony villain, even by this show's standards, and the first half with Clyde having to look after a baby dragged horribly. Sky herself is pretty cute, but she's basically a younger female version of Luke, only without the super-intelligence. And Luke is a lot cuter than Sky, it must be said. At the end, when the mysterious guy with his parrot commander turned up and offered to take Sky away with him, I was seriously hoping Sarah Jane and Sky would have a tearful farewell and she'd be on her way.

But like I said, it's still amazing to watch Sarah Jane defeating alien baddies one last time, and showing us that believing in yourself and being your own person are values worth fighting for.